Good Tidings, Great Joy, All That Jazz
by Chaltab
Summary: The Titans deal with Christmas and Raven learns that Holiday Cheer may be what it's cracked up to be after all. Oh, yeah, and a psychotic glacikinetic is threating to bury the city in snow.
1. Part the First

**A/N: Good day! Welcome to my Titans Christmas fic. Newcomers be warned that this story takes place in my alternate timeline in which two new Titans have joined the team, Collin "Ragnarok" Roberts and Davis "Yin" Jefferson. Actually, this story takes place a bit ahead of my timeline, and Yin hasn't been introduced yet. I suppose this is his big debut.**

My other stories "Legacy of the Tamaranian" and "Colors" tell about everything that has happened differently from the series, but you don't have to read them to understand this story.  


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* * *

Good Tidings, Great Joy, All That Jazz...**

Light slid into his field of vision, and he rolled over. _Tired. _Soon, he felt a hand on his shoulder, tapping, shaking him from is comfort. The radio began blaring a song he'd heard far too many times lately—_Have a holly, jolly, Christmas _began playing for the seventy-first time that week.

"Not now!" he said, rolling over.

"Yin, get up," the voice was low and feminine. Sort of raspy, but not unpleasantly so.

"In a minute!"

He thought he heard a sigh of frustration in the darkness, and then, suddenly, something was _in_ his mind, activating it, pushing him into full alertness..

"What," he sat up. "Who's there?"

"It's me," said Raven.

"Raven? How did you get into my room?"

Raven looked over to the table beside his bed, where there sat a rubix cube. She lifted her hand, and it floated over till it hovered in between the two. "I have my ways," she said, and the puzzle began to twist and turn withing its black encasing. Raven held out her hand and took the cube, and the black energy faded away, revealing that the puzzle was completely solved.

"What time is it?"

Raven glanced at Yin's clock. "5:29," she said. "You said you wanted to mediate with me today, didn't you?"

"Five thirty on Christmas Eve morning?" After a moment, he continued, "You're serious, aren't you?"

"I like to watch the sunrise," Raven said. "But until then, the dark helps me focus. Come on, I made you some tea. It's cold outside."

"How cold?" Yin arched an eyebrow at Raven. Being the newest Titan, he still found himself having to constantly remind the Titans of things, including the fact that his powers make him vulnerable to cold temperatures.

"Twenty-two," Raven answered. "You'd better bundle up."

Twenty two degrees! She had to be kidding! But she certainly didn't appear to be. "Fine, fine, but if I go brittle and break, I'm going to sue."

"I thought your body had only elastic properties. You're saying that cold actually effects you like it would rubber?" Raven seemed mildly concerned.

"Cold _and _heat," Yin replied. "Temperature extremes aren't good either way."

Raven nodded. "When it's this cold, I normally make a shield—with my powers—to keep the chill off. Since you can't levitate you should probably bring a blanket or pillow to sit on."

As the two spoke, they walked together into the main room, the one Robin always referred to as Ops, even though it seemed to Yin more like a big living room with a kitchen attached to the back end (complete a pile of dishes that still needed to be done.)

"Good idea." Yin smiled broadly. Yeah, he felt really stupid for it, and worried he was making Raven nervous based on what he was feeling. Still, either she didn't notice or didn't mind it, and either way, it was a good sign. If she didn't notice, there was no harm in having the feelings, and if she didn't care, that might even mean she returned them...

As soon as he had thought that, Raven glared at him with some hint of alarm in her eyes.

Yin flushed, suddenly greatly embarrassed—if she had read his mind. He turned away and stretched his arm across the room to a blanket he had happened to see lying across the sofa and picked it up.

"It's alright,' she said. "I just got a general sense of it. I can't read minds by accident, only emotions. And I'm trying my hardest to keep myself away from yours..."

"Oh..." Yin said dejectedly... "Right."

Raven sweatdropped. "I didn't mean it like that! I try to block everyone out, Davis."

Yin arched his eyebrow, barely noticing that he was pleased she had used his first name. "Even around Christmas?"

Raven looked away. "Not everyone gives off good vibes this time of year, you know. It's not that I'm against Christmas. People should celebrate whatever Holidays they want to. It's just that I've never seen the point of it."

Yin blinked at her. "What about peace on Earth, good will towards men, baby Jesus, and getting presents?" His tone was somewhere between joking and serious, since he was basically probing Raven to see if she was really bitter about one or all of such things.

She just sighed. "Let's meditate first. We can talk about this later."

"Okay..."

Suddenly, black energy surrounded Raven and the newest of the Teen Titans, and the two were pulled up in the shadowy Raven to the roof of the tower. Raven, as promised, created a black dome with her powers, but then let the opacity fade until it just barely darkened the skies; it made a sufficient wind breaker, but still somehow let enough cool air in that Raven and Yin could breath, and not get uncomfortably hot.

"So what exactly do your words mean? Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos?"

"They really wouldn't mean anything to you. Azarath is where I grew up, where I was born. After my mother realized she was carrying the child of a demon, she fled until she was found by a kind man who called himself Metrion. He took her to Azarath's great city, where she found piece. He was the closest thing I had to a father in my childhood. Zinthos... that one would be rather hard to explain. Regardless, these are things that put me at peace, remind me of home and family, whatever I had of one."

Yin smiled at this. "Does that mean I have to come up with my own words?"

"If you want to. You really don't have to say anything at all, though." Raven turned, facing East over the city, waiting on the sunrise. (It had occurred to her last week that the day Slade had revealed to the other Titans the Prophecy, the sun had risen over the Pacific ocean, which made absolutely no sense whatsoever in retrospect. She had quit trying to figure it out, though, because her brain couldn't handle it.)

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos," they began to chant...

**oooo**

"You have to be joking me," Raven said. After the rest of the Titans had gotten up, she and Davis had returned to ops with the rest of them, minus Starfire, who was still asleep. Cyborg had made breakfast, and was humming along to the radio, which was of course, playing Christmas songs! At the moment, the Titans were hearing _Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer _for the eleventy-first time in the past five days. Thankfully, it was low enough to just be background music.

Breakfast happened to be waffles, with red and green chips of what was supposedly chocolate...

"No, I'm not," replied Robin, taking another bite of waffle and swallowing it before continuing. "Why would I be joking?"

"Because!" Raven started, trying to think of something... "We're super heroes! We can't be seen endorsing one religion over another."

Beast Boy looked at her. "Dude, Raven, we just got done disassembling that giant menorah from our roof like yesterday. It's not like we're celebrating _only_ Christmas."

"And who in Jump City doesn't celebrate Christmas?" Ragnarök, also known as Collin Roberts, asked. As the sixth Titan, he had a bit more experience than Davis, and new the ropes a bit more. But he did have a rather embarrassing quirk. "I swear sometimes this city reminds me of Whatville from _How the Fitch Stole Christmas._"

"You mean _Whoville _and _Grinch, _right?" asked Davis.

Collin arched an eyebrow and pulled out a three subject note book labeled _Differences Between My World and This One _and began writing somewhere about half-way through.

Raven looked back over at Robin. "Fine, so we're not celebrating Christmas exclusively. But still, this is ridiculous."

"It's Christmas in Jump City. We defend Jump City. Why not celebrate with the people of Jump City?" Cyborg asked.

"This is humiliating," she said. "Superheroes don't give out gifts, and we don't go caroling. Have you ever seen Batman out celebrating with_ his _friends?"

"Our base is a giant letter of the alphabet, for crying out loud," Collin interjected vainly. "It's not like Batman has a huge building in the middle of Gotham with his name on it."

After an awkward pause in which Robin seemed to be astounded by Collin's statement, Robin spoke. "Leave Batman out of this. I'm not him. His methods work with Gotham, but here, we don't have to be like that. Besides, other than his butler, I don't think Batman has any friends."

"What if I refuse to go?" Raven asked.

"Raven," said Davis with much frustration. "It's not like he's asking you to sing a solo or something."

"Heads would roll if that were the case," she said. "Look, I don't have anything against Christmas, but if you haven't noticed, I'm _half-demon. _Peace on Earth and good will towards men is nice, but it sort of leaves people like me out of the loop."

"Raven," Beast Boy said. "Don't say that. Even if you can't get into the good will vibes you could at least think about the presents!"

"Beast Boy," Robin said, glaring in the changeling's direction, "you're not helping things any."

"Sorry." Gar turned to Raven. "What's the deal, though? You've never had a problem with Christmas before."

"Robin had never told the mayor we'd celebrate publicly before!"

"Come on," Cyborg said. "You're an empath. You know after all the vampire business the town's morale is low. They could use a boost."

Raven sighed. "If you all want to go make us laughing stocks of the superhero community, be my guest. I will be elsewhere."

Of course, Raven figured that they knew there was more to it. Raven had often been derisive of the term superhero, and she really didn't care what the media thought of them. Well, except for Trevor, but that was different. She felt like a total hypocrite, though, and she knew the Titans could have called her on it.

They didn't.

She stood up and left the room, heading back to her quarters. It was still a day until the event. Maybe she would reconsider. Not bloody likely, but possible. She hated to go running back to her room, but it was the only way to make her point—even if she was free(er) to use her emotions now that her father was gone, she still kept to herself a lot. And she still had his blood in her veins, and still transformed into something awful when her temper was aroused. All due to who she was.

Hence, the Titans knew when to leave her alone...

Well. _Most_ of them did. She felt Davis' faint mental presence a split second before she heard his footsteps behind her. "Raven, what's up?" he asked. After a brief pause that Raven found herself regretting, he was walking beside her.

"Nothing," she said. "I just don't care for Christmas. Either way, bad or good."

He frowned. "There's more to it than that. You seemed almost offended that Robin would even suggest this event, or deal or whatever it is."

"You know where I come from," she said. "That should tell you enough."

And with that, she vanished into the shadows, teleporting to her room. The Titans would _not_ be allowed to press her on the real reason she had reacted this way.

**oooo**

"So, Collin," Robin said, walking up behindand looking over his shoulder. "What are you doing?" Several hours had passed since the confrontation at breakfast, and the Titans had all been trying to cool off. Starfire was _still_ sleeping, which meant that Robin had to find someone else to talk to. Whatever had possessed him to talk to Collin was lost to time.

"Diabolically plotting to steal your girlfriend," Collin said with a grin. "Or just finishing up wrapping presents. Thankfully my dimension's time line isn't perfectly synchronized; Christmas has already come and passed there, and my parents gave me a bunch of money when I visited.?

"Your parents..." Robin started... "Do they know? About what you do here, I mean?"

"Of course they do," he said. "My identity was secret there at first, but after Delirium... did what he did... then all the Titans ID's went public because most of them... didn't make it. Only Beast Boy, and he's an actor now."

Robin nodded. "My dad... He found out that I was Robin just before he died. This is my first Christmas without him." A sigh escaped his lips. "We never celebrated a holiday where I was keeping no secrets from him. Not since I started this job."

"I... I'm sorry," Collin said. Why Robin was confided this in him, he had no idea. "I don't guess I can related."

"You lost someone really close, though. Your world's Starfire." Robin's words probably came out more insensitively than he had intended them.

"Kori was different. She was a close friend, but can that compare to losing your father? And, well... your father has no replacement. But in a way I got a bit of a mulligan. This world's Kori."

Robin sighed. "I don't know why I brought this up. I just thought perhaps you could relate."

As the Boy Wonder turned to go, he shot a glance over his shoulder. "Merry Christmas," he said. Sincere, but dejected, Robin's voice cracked slightly.

"Yeah. You too, Tim," Collin replied.

**oooo**

After deciding that Raven would cool off quicker if Davis let her have her space, he had gone to his room and now set intensely studying the television. He was playing Fire Emblem on his old Gamecube, and his sword-wielding knight had just been speared by a lame enemy hero unit. This made him rather angry. He gritted his teeth and brought down one of his own hero units to kill off the enemy, and then sent his knight up north and used a healing item on it.

Davis glanced back, and suddenly realized that Beast Boy was beside him. "Gar?" he asked. He still hadn't quite gotten a handle on all their names. "What brings you in here? I think this game has a two-player mode if you want to..."

"Dude, I don't play these times of games. Too much thinking."

"Right. You really should give it a try, Beast Boy. It's not like I'm going to laugh at you if you fail. Strategy games have been proven to help people strategize in combat. It would probably be to your benefit."

"Maybe, but that's not why I'm hear, Yen."

"Yin."

Beast Boy ignored the correction and sat down next to Davis. "About Raven..."

"What is her deal?" Yin blurted. "She doesn't have to lock herself in her room. I was only trying to point out that she was over-reacting."

The changeling shrugged. "Raven is just... Raven. You get used to it."

"I thought she didn't have this problem now that you guys wasted her father," he said.

"Trust me," Beast Boy said, "Raven did pretty much all the 'wasting' in that fight. But yeah, she has gotten better since then. Dude, you should have seen her back in year one."

Davis sighed. "Just because she's better than she used to be doesn't mean she is where she needs to be. It can't be healthy to lock herself away like that."

"Raven's smart," Beast Boy said. "She knows when she's gone too far, even if it takes her a while to see it. Things like this take time. Or at least that's what Robin says. I was just going to say that you should give her her space. She is new to feeling emotions. And I think she might have more for you than she's willing to admit."

"Don't be ridiculous," Davis said. "I'm a newcomer, a year younger. And Raven doesn't do romance. Right?"

"She's let you in faster than anyone, man," Beast Boy said. "She seems to trust you or something.

"Still—" Davis was cut off mid sentence by the blaring noise of the plot device---er criminal alarm... "Why now?"

"Just part of the job," Gar said, running off down the hall. Yin followed him, and the two got there just as Raven teleported in, an exasperated look on her face. Starfire floated in yawning. "Who would disturb our merriment on such a glorious December morning?" she complained.

Robin turned on the monitor in ops to display a huge blizzard centered around one person. "I was afraid of this. Batman had told me she left from Kobe three days ago."

"Who?" Cyborg asked.

"Rei Kawabe—Flare's sister. She goes by the name of Glacier, and obviously, has powers just the opposite of her brother."

"But she is equally evil, yes?" Starfire asked. "I would _so _like to open a can of the butt whoop on her for forcing me to wake up."

Robin sweatdropped at Kori's unusual display of enthusiasm for violence, but realized she hadn't gotten much sleep lately, and there seemed to be something wrong with her ability to absorb sunlight. Robin hoped it wasn't serious...

"Not exactly evil. She's insane—thinks that she's Raiden's daughter, like her brother did."

"Davis' face contorted into an exaggerated grimace." This CANNOT be happening. "I'm initiated fighting Flare, and now I have to fight his sister on Christmas eve. It's as if karma is trying to torture me for all the terrible things I've done."

"What terrible things?" Beast Boy asked.

"I can't think of any," he sighed. "Which is most of why this is not very pleasant for me. If I deserved it, I wouldn't be so frustrated."

"Will the cold affect your ability to fight?" Robin asked.

"Probably, but I need the training. I'm going anyway."

"You're not the leader here," Robin said. "I give orders, not you. But you're right. We have to be ready for things like this. The weather will be a strain on all of us except Starfire."

Starfire, who happened to be exhausted. A massive yawn escaped her mouth.

"Let's go, Titans," Robin said. "I don't know what Rei is after, but we have to stop her."

As the Titans filed out to the T-Car, (because nobody wanted to ride in the weather) Ragnarök matched Yin's stride and spoke to him. "I can't believe you opted to fight in this weather. I wish I didn't have to."

"It's a challenge." Yin replied.

"Now you're sounding like Delirium." Rag frowned. "With your weakness it sounds more like suicide than challenge. Sometime the better part of courage is knowing your limits."

Yin reached his hand across the room and grabbed the coat he had worn earlier. "We'll see," he said, putting it on...

**oooo**

The T-Car blazed over the roads towards the scene of the crime. The back had been expanded to fit the whole team, but it was still a tight fit. And the radio was mercilessly blasting _Jingle Bell Rock_ the whole way.

Hang a right up here," Robin said, "she's moving towards the Westron Tower Mall."

"A mall full of last-second Christmas shoppers," Raven said. "This is not good."

"At least the mall is warm," Beast Boy said.

Yin said nothing, but seemed to be in deep thought. Raven reached out and felt that he was preparing for battle. She only hoped he didn't do what he had last time and treat it like a game...

As they Titans neared the mall, Cyborg gasped as the external temperature reading on the T-Car began to drop drastically, getting ever closer to zero...

"We have to get there fast before the whole mall is a giant ice-cube," Cyborg said. He slammed on the gas, activated the thrusters, and deployed the T-Cars glider wings. Then he used the machine guns to blast out the highway guardrail ahead of him and blast off the overpass with the thrusters and glide towards the mall.

As they landed, the song on the radio switched to _Twelve Days of Christmas—_instruments only. Cyborg drover over the curbs, and then realized that the Car was sliding. It had come into a part of the parking light covered in pure ice. Spikes deployed in the tires to boost the traction, and the vehicle continued onwards towards the entrance to the mall.

Suddenly, a portion of the mall's outer wall exploded, blasted from the inside, and Cyborg jerked the wheel quickly to the left. The car turned sideways and began to skid across the ice, when the Titans saw her. All the Titans held their breath.

Standing motionless like a statue in the icy mist that had risen, Glacier awaited them. Her face was like stone, adorned with a bitter scowl—nothing like the infernal permanently-etched arrogant smirk on her her brother's face.

The vapor around her formed into ice, and the ice became a blade and began to slide towards the T-Car.

"Titans, evacuate!" Cyborg screamed in panic. He slammed a button on the console and the top of the car exploded off, and the seats ejected from the car...

Rei walked forward as the two halves split and went their separate directions. The girl wore only a simple shirt and a pair of blue-jean shorts, which were soaked and frozen solid. Anyone else would have been _very_ uncomfortable in this weather, but Rei continued on, small pieces of her frozen clothing cracking like brittle slate as she moved.

Cyborg deployed spikes from his shoe and began to move forward, and noticed the other Titans slipping and sliding. "Starfire," he called back. "Melt the ice."

Starfire did so with a starbolt, and the other six Titans managed to get to their feet, Robin taking the front position. "Titans, you've seen what she is capable of. Exercise caution."

"Caution will not help you," said the girl absently. "Fight me and perish." Cyborg thought even though having the exact opposite physical characteristics of Cate Blanchett, Glacier reminded him of Galadriel from the Lord of the Rings films based on her manner of speech.

**oooo**

"Titans, GO!" Robin ordered, and the Titans dashed forward. Starfire sent a group of starbolts at her, but ice shards flew up and blocked them, steam spraying everywhere. Beast Boy charged her as a polar bear, but she jumped over him and formed a cage of ice from the mist and slush and captured Beast Boy in it. Then she turned and fired several ice shards at Cyborg.

Robin charged forward, rolling underneath ice shards and dodging blasts of some sort of blue-white energy that came from her hands. She smashed at her her head, but she brought up an arm and blocked his bo... It should have shattered the bone, but instead his bo actually _bent_ around her arm, and he noticed at thin layer of 'black ice' over it, that had apparently strengthened her block.

She pistoned the hand forward and blasted him backwards.

Raven hurled all the things she could find at the girl, including the halves of the T-Car, but Glacier formed shields of ice around her frail-looking body and the objects bounced off.

"Only death awaits," she reminded them.

Ragnarök finally found suitable amounts of earth underneath the frozen asphalt of the parking lot and caused a massive spiked column of earth to break from the ground below, and when Rei dodged the first one, another one erupted below her. Rei bounced off that one, and then formed a bridge of ice between her and Ragnarok, and surfed down it on her bare feet, finishing off by kicking Rag in the face. He sailed backwards a ways and slid across the ice.

Yin noticed this and ran around behind Glacier, grabbing the two columns of rock and wrapping his stretched arms around them. The coldness of the dirt sent painful shivers up his arm where it touched, and that was in many places. Yin walked backwards, building up the tension in his arms... but then he slipped on a patch of ice, losing his balance...

The elasticity of his arms carried him forward, arcing towards Glacier as she was distracted by the other Titans. "Glacier!" he shouted. The Japanese girl blasted the Titans away and then snapped her head around just fast enough to see his feet slam firmly into her face

She snarled something in Japanese as she recoiled from the blow, and blasted a shining blue energy attack at him. Yin dodged out of the way and yelped when he realized that his arms were still tied around the columns of rock and were greatly limiting his mobility.

That and the cold.

Glacier fired at him again, even as the Titans recovered from the previous attack, and though Starfire was the least affected by the cold, even she was having trouble continuing.

A sonic cannon blow to the back convinced Glacier, it seemed, that enough was enough. She snarled something loudly in Japanese, and then said, "I have come for revenge, and revenge I shall achieve! Revenge first against those who would imprison my brother, son of Raiden, and all the Western world for the humiliation of Nippon!"

"What is she talking about?" Beast Boy chirped.

"Nothing good, I know that much," Cyborg said, shooting again and then realizing that he had shouted—shouted because the wind had picked up.

"This entire city will freeze," Glacier said returning to her calm, Galadriel-like state. "And then die."

She raised up her hands, and light appeared everywhere, searing the Titans with a frigid gale. "What is that stuff?" Collin asked.

"I think it's cold energy," replied Cyborg.

"'Cold energy' is an oxymoron," Robin said.

"Says the guy who fought crime with a giant bat!" Cyborg shot back.

Robin glared at him, and then darted forward to attack Glacier again...

But then, her light focused into massive ball of cold energy, and suddenly, all went white..

**oooo**

Raven felt herself flying through the air before she knew what had hit her. She also knew that she was mind-numbingly cold...

And then, a very solid object slammed into her back and she smacked her head against the wall she'd hit. Pain shot through her body, numbing the cold by virtue of numbing her brain functions. The last thing she saw looked like a sign... With a cross on top...

Then she passed out.

Part two should be up by Sunday.


	2. Part the Second

**Author's Note**: For the record, this is not a 'Raven Conversion fic' even if it looks like it at first.

* * *

The next sensation Raven felt was all in her head. Literally. 

And it wasn't pleasant: it was the worst headache she had suffered from in recent memory. Most of her body felt similarly achy, though no pain was as sharp. Raven realized she wasn't especially cold, though she felt a bit chilled—that lingering sensation of coldness that permeates the body even after you've gone from a cold area to a warm one….

Raven slowly sat up, looking around. She was in some sort of study with a fireplace, lying on a faint-couch. The fireplace wasn't lit, but there was a stack of logs next to it, and across the room was a shelf full of books.

"Where am I?" she asked. She realized her leotard was still soaked from melted snow, but her cloak was nowhere to be seen, and that she had been covered up by a very large quilt

Getting off the couch, Raven walked over to the bookshelf and began scanning it. The first shelf she examined was lined with encyclopedia's. The second surprised her, as it was lined with several books of theology, some by C.S. Lewis, others by people she had never really heard of… A rather thick one on the end caught her eye:

_Just As I Am_ by Billy Graham…

Suddenly, she remembered the last thing she'd seen before blacking out—it had looked like a church sign which meant...

"What are you doing?" a voice cut in.

Raven turned, extending her hands and preparing to blast. But when she saw the source, she paused. It was just a child. "Oh…"

"Hi. You're name is Raven, right? Glad to see you're up."

The boy walked over to Raven, wearing a nondescript shirt and a pair of faded jeans. "You could have been killed out in that storm."

"Storm?" Raven asked… "Who are you. How do you know my name."

"I'm Josh," the kid said. "As for you, well. Haven't you ever watched television?'

Raven sweatdropped. "Fine, but still, what storm are you talking about?"

The kid walked over to a step stool, and Raven noticed that there was a small window near the ceiling. She followed Josh and when he pointed out, she looked…

Snow and Ice were everywhere, covering the city as far as the eye could see. The sign outside the church was now buried in the snow up to the cross-beam, and the wind was blowing the snow around so hard it looked like there was a wall of fog.

"Glacier." Raven said. "I have to go stop her."

"You can't go out in that storm. You'll freeze!" Josh blurted. "What is Glacier?"

"Glacier is a very bad woman," Raven said. "She's the one who did this. How long was I out?"

"It's 10:59," Josh said.

"Two _hours_." That didn't bode well! Her friends were out in that storm… and…

"You slammed into the side of the church and me and my dad brought you in. You must have hit your head pretty hard. You would have frozen to death if we hadn't found you."

Raven stared off into the storm, watching as it raged on and on out of control. Gradually, she noticed Josh staring at her and remembered what he's just said. "Your father is here?" she asked him.

Josh smiled. "Yeah; he's working up stairs. He does that a lot. It's kind of like we live here."

"You live in a church?" Raven asked, arching her eyebrow.

"We travel a lot. My dad works with a lot of different pastors, helps with sermons, stuff like that," Josh answered. "Would you like to meet my father? I can introduce you to him. He can do this really neat thing with his hands and…"

"That's alright. I need to get back out there. I have to stop Glacier before she freezes the whole town." Raven sighed.

"But it's too cold to go out there on foot… and all the cars are buried under snow."

"I… I can teleport," Raven said, suddenly feeling terribly bad. Was it a sin to use powers granted by her demonic father in a church? But wouldn't it be more of one to let the city die over some hypothetical guilt?

Raven started to reach out, feeling for the twisted presence of Glacier in the maelstrom… And boy did she find it! The increasingly bonkers young woman was like a beacon, screaming in the city. Raven focused, drawing her powers from her blood…

Nothing.

She tried again…

_Nothing._

"What's going on?"

Josh looked over at her. "What do you mean?"

"I can't use my powers. I can't teleport." Raven rubbed her temples. Her head still ached, but it had become duller. Either way, a headache shouldn't be preventing her from teleporting.

"Maybe magic doesn't work on Christmas Eve or something. Or maybe getting hurt or too cold turned them 'off'," Josh offered.

"I'm not hurt bad enough. And I don't think cold would do it. Why would the date matter?"

Josh shrugged. "Maybe God turns all magic off on Christmas Eve. So the only 'magic' is the manger."

Raven wasn't exactly sure how to answer that… "Um… maybe. But Christmas Eve isn't literally even the anniversary."

"What?" Josh seemed curious.

"A long time ago, it was a holiday for another… religion, I guess you'd call it. Some sort of pagan festival. But then the people were conquered. They kept the holiday, but the new rulers forced them to change it so that it had a Christian meaning."

Josh sat and thought about that for a long moment. "I'd heard about that," he said. "I guess it doesn't matter when it actually happened, just that we keep the Spirit."

Raven sighed and looked away. "I've never really been big on the 'Spirit of Christmas' much."

"Why not?"

"Well, lots of reasons."

"Name them," Josh said, and dare Raven think it, his voice sounded a bit smug.

"Well. Where I grew up we didn't even celebrate Christmas. My first Christmas on Earth, I was alone, trying to get the help of the Justice League while they were out throwing snow-balls on another planet or running around trying to find toys for kids that would whine selfishly if they didn't get them. I wasn't really impressed."

"But you've been here a while, right?"

"Yeah. The first Christmas I spent with the Titans was nice, and I played along with the gift giving and traditions. Their good vibes rubbed off on me. But, I don't know. My father is gone now…"

"You lost your dad?" Josh blurted.

"My dad… was not a nice guy. Trust me, it's best that he's gone. This may sound odd, but my father was like the devil. Literally, a massive demon."

"Trigon!" Josh blurted.

"Yeah." Raven stared at Josh for a while. His red hair was a bit of a mess and freckles dotted his face, but he somehow seemed more aloof than he would have appeared…

"Is that why you don't like God? Because you're dad is a demon?"

"Who said I don't like God?" Raven asked defensively… She hadn't said anything of the sort—

"You just sound like you don't. The face you made when I brought up the idea of Him turning off magic tonight—"

Raven knew he had baited her this time, but he was touching a nerve she didn't want touched. "Would _you_ like God if your entire life you knew you would drop an Arch Demon on the planet? If you had that demon's blood in your veins?"

Josh sighed and left the room, leaving Raven to think for a while… Counting the throbs of her muscles and pondering her life, Raven didn't have any idea how much time had passed when the lights went out, as did the heat. The electricity..

"Oh, no!" Raven turned around and looked out the window… "Glacier!"

The entire city was going dark, lights in the windows suddenly going off all over the town, but the storm was still swirling around, snow piling up everywhere. People would die if this kept up, and Raven had to get out. She tried her powers again..

_Darn it, still nothing!_

Raven turned when she heard Josh come back in the room from upstairs. "My dad said he has his own heat, but that I should start a fire for you and me."

"Right," Raven said, "Thank you. And your dad, for your kindness. But I really need to get out there and stop this before… People will freeze to death if I don't go soon."

"Why can't one of the other heroes handle it?" Josh said. "Like Superman, or the Green Flash."

Raven smiled at his combination of the latter two heroes and walked over to the fireplace where Josh was working. She helped him load it up and then watched as he lit the chemical-treated starter log. Soon, the wood had caught and the fire was burning bright. "Too bad not everyone has one of these," she said.

Josh went back up stairs and came down with two steaming cups. "I thought you might like some tea," he said. "My dad made it; it's the best."

Raven took a cup, though her anxiety didn't diminish. "I'm sorry I shouted at you earlier," she sighed. "It's hard to understand where I come from."

"People make fun of my dad a lot," Josh said. "Because of what he does and who he is. I mean I know it's not the same thing as being a big red devil and all, but I can just understand having issues with your father. Heh."

Raven found it odd that despite all that was happening, Josh wore a huge vibrant smile. "You're a good kid, Josh," Raven said. "I have a feeling you'd go stop Glacier yourself if you could."

Josh smirked, pulled up his sleeve, and flexed his muscle. "Who says I can't?"

Raven actually found herself laughing at this, and so grateful her powers weren't there. Something would have blown up for sure. Josh then took the lighter and started lighting all the candles around the room, giving them a bit of light…

"Seriously, though," he said. "Just because of who your dad is, doesn't mean God hates you, Raven. You couldn't choose who your dad was."

"No…"

"I guess you just hear all these people out there who _act_ all spiritual and condemn everyone who they don't like… and you think that is what God is all about. But remember what those angels said, right: 'Good Tidings of Great Joy for ALL people. Doesn't that mean you too?"

"I guess."

"Of course it does. See, that is why Christmas is good—because it's about love and good news, not hate and 'condemnation'. That's what my dad says. So you don't have to be mad at God over where you come from."

Raven nodded and began to ponder what he was saying. Maybe, she wondered, was she MEANT to be here. Was Josh some sort of messenger whether he knew it or not?

After a while Josh sat down beside her new perch—she had taken a seat on the foot stool and watched the storm outside grow more and more violent—and they sat and sipped tea in silence.

The storm outside raged on, dark clouds covering the night sky and sheer white vanishing in the now-dark Jump City. Raven feared that even if she could get to Glacier and stop the witch somehow that

And then, all of a sudden, a chill ran up her spine, and she saw that all the candles were out and the fireplace was no longer lit… And Josh was gone too.

Just then, the clock struck midnight, a hollow chime echoing throughout that old stone church…

Raven got up and ran to the stairs, and looked up. Completely dark. She started up the stairs…

"Josh!" she yelled. "Josh! Where—?"

"I'm right here, Raven," his voice came from another room, the one the study opened into. She went back down and looked in there, to find it empty as well, and then she turned around when she heard a noise…

Josh was kneeling over the fireplace, lighting another log. "What is it?"

"You vanished," she said in a way, almost… accusingly, she realized… _Why?_

"I went to go check the time," he said. "It's midnight now, Christmas Day. Merry Christmas Raven."

"Why did all the candles go out?"

"Um… because we don't celebrate Hanukah in this church?" Josh tried.

"Funny. It just seemed odd they would all go out together. And the fireplace."

"Well, I'm lighting it up again. Hey, now that Christmas Eve is over, maybe you're powers work again."

Raven realized suddenly that THAT had been the chill she felt earlier—and the emotion was probably what had blown the fires out—she could FEEL her energies again. She didn't know if Josh was right, or if it was just that she had recovered or warmed up enough, but she was glad to have them back.. "I think I can teleport again," she said.

Josh walked around to the far side of the bookcase, bent over a box, and then carried something over to Raven—a coat and a pair of very warm-looking sweat pants.

"Here; these were left here and put in the lost and found. Just remember to bring them back when you're done.

"Thanks again, Josh," she said.

"No problem," he returned. "Go get 'er!"

"I will." Raven closed her eyes, once again felt the mad presence, and vanished into the dark…

**oooo**

Glacier walked through the streets, and anything that struck her fancy, she took. Teddy bears, Rabid Furbies™, Inaction Hero™ dolls… it was all hers, in her twisted mind at least.

Suddenly, a black Raven-shape appeared, and Glacier realized the one that hadn't been frozen was back.

"Raven was your name, they say," Glacier called out, "but to me you're just another bird. And I have plenty of stones!" As she said the last sentence, Rei's voice twisted from her typical Galadriel-esque manner into a snarl, and she hurled ice-spikes in every direction, hoping to skewer Raven on one or two of them.

"This may sound very cliché," Raven's voice echoed from around the street. "But I think you're firmly on the 'naughty' list this year!" Black energy appeared from underneath the girl, tendrils wrapping around her and hurling her sky ward.

Raven was up there waiting with a new spell. "Magnus Flarenium ZINTHOS!" Raven shouted, and a fireball blasted out from her hands, slamming into the ice-girl. Mist exploded off of her and her body slammed into the snow.

"FOOLISH GIRL!" she shrieked. "I am GLACIER, daughter of Raiden! You dare strike me with dark fire?"

"Shut up," Raven said, wrapping more dark tendrils around Glacier, some around her mouth, and restraining her…

Suddenly, snow began to float off the ground and enter a growing blue aura around the girl…

Raven withdrew, realizing that she could still control ice even bound and gagged.

"FREEZE!" Rei extended her arms forward and a huge stream of ice and sleet burst out of nowhere, arcing towards Raven. Raven gasped and drew from her powers, hoping she could stop the attack..

"Azarath, Metrion, ZINTHOS!" Raven yelled. Black energy formed a shield in front of her, and the ice-beam collided with it, immediately making the air around Raven even more frigid than it was. But Raven pushed back, drawing on her powers to hold the blast back. And then she saw something that surprised her. Rei was actually struggling…

Not only that, but the ice in the immediate area was breaking up and entering her aura…

"Hey," Raven shouted, suddenly with an idea. "Ice queen! You and you're brother…" Raven felt very odd doing this, but it was her best shot.. "You're both nuts! Raiden doesn't exist!"

"LIAR!" Rei shrieked, raising her hands higher. "DIE!"

The beam grew larger, and more and more ice was ripped off the ground and air and went into her aura, fusing with her ice power and becoming part of the beam…

"No, really!" Raven smirked. "He doesn't exist because… Slade killed him!" Yes, Raven knew, that was lame, but it was the only thing she could think of on short notice. "And then.. I fed him to my dog.. er… Beast Boy!"

"NO NO NO NONONONO!" Rei shrieked, and the harder she screamed, the harder she blasted. Raven continued to taunt her, eventually having to angle the deflector field she'd made, sending the ice beam arcing towards space…

Rei became nothing but a silhouette in the brilliant cold-energy maelstrom, and then, Raven added salt to the wound. "By the way, 'Glacier,' Merry Christmas!"

"You will be silent," Rei said, suddenly reverting back to her calm manner before the final push. Raven was driving backwards by the force, the icy air licking at her even through the warm clothing Josh had given her…

Then it was over, and the entire town was free. "And Merry Christmas, Jump City," Raven whispered. Her friends, she saw, were no longer Titansicles…

She floated down, to them, reviving each one of them from the cold sleep… Once they were all awake, confusion began.

"How did we survive that?" Cyborg asked. "It should have killed all of us."

"Esp-p-pecially… m-me…" Yin said, still shivering even as Raven wrapped him in dark energy…

"I guess we got some sort of… Christmas miracle after all," Beast Boy said. "Thanks, Raven."

"Yes, thank you for helping us on this most joyous of days…"

"Starfire is right," Robin said. "It's nearly one in the morning. It's Christmas Day. And after a night like tonight, what do you say we go back to the tower and exchange presents early?"

"S-sounds g-good to me," Ragnarök said, also shivering though certainly not as much as Yin…

"Where is Glacier?" Robin asked. The Titans all shrugged and started walking in disparate directions.

"Dudes, I think I found her," Beast Boy shouted after a quick run around and scout…

And found her he had, or what she was now. Where Rei had been standing, there was now only a figure made entirely of ice.

"Whoa. Any chance of the white Catalyst fixing this one, man?" Cyborg asked Ragnarok.

Raven answered for him. "No," she said. "Whatever she's done to herself, there's no undoing it. There is no soul in here. Utterly empty inside," Raven said sadly. As if on cue, a chill wind rushed by, blowing over the Rei sculpture and shattering it to a million tiny pieces.

**oooo**

The following day, the city had more than one reason to celebrate. Not only was it Christmas, but the Titans had averted a disaster that could have 'grinched' the whole town…

Raven had given no more protests about the event Robin had scheduled, and showed up with everyone else. Nobody asked her what had gotten her to change her mind…

Yet, anyway…

As _Hark the Herald Angels Sing_ trailed off into the next song, the Titans began to step down.. all of them but one…  
_  
O little town of Bethlehem  
How still we see thee lie  
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep  
The silent stars go by_

_Yet in they dark streets shineth  
The everlasting light  
The hopes and fears of all the years  
Are met in thee tonight_

Raven. And the entire group of gathered citizenry was floored. But not because it was awful, as one would think. It sounded _amazing. _Raven wasn't even cutting lose, just singing at a reserved, measured volume… And a song that seemed to suit her.

"Whoa!" Beast Boy blurted. "That was amazing."

"Most marvelous," Star agreed.

"Where did she learn to sing like that?" Robin asked, his eyes wide through his mask.

Cyborg and Beast Boy walked over to Collin, who was sampling some punch that had by some miracle not frozen. "Wow," Victor said. "That was a surprise."

"I wonder what changed her mind about the season," Beast Boy said… "Seriously."

"I don't know," said Rag… "But it really shouldn't surprise _anyone _that Raven sings so well. After all, she is voiced by T—"

**_THWACK!_**

"I am NOT letting you break the fourth wall on Christmas!" Cyborg blurted at Rag, who was now lying on the ground half buried in the dirt and rubbing his head.

"Sorry," Rag said weakly.

On the other side of the courtyard where the celebration was taking place, Raven backed away from the microphones. That had certainly been… an odd experience. And she could feel the eyes of the crowd on her the same time… Was it shock? Was she just awful? What—

Suddenly, Yin ran up beside her and wrapped his stretchy arms around her several times, pulling her into a very-much unwanted glomp. "Raven! You were terrific. I—wow. What made you change your mind about Christmas?" he asked

Raven smiled, but looked away. "You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you," she said…

Elsewhere, Rag was chatting with Starfire when Robin spied them. Rag clearly had something behind his back and…

"So, Kori," he said. "On this planet we have this tradition…" and then, he pulled out a small piece of mistletoe and held it up above him and Starfire…

**_THONK_**

Robin suddenly blazed in faster than Impulse and knocked Rag to the ground, grabbing the mistletoe out of thin air.

"I think she already knows," he said with a smirk, and then, Starfire and Robin leaned forward into an embrace followed by a long kiss that Starfire would later describe as "most glorious"…

**oooo**

Far away and yet very close, Ragnarok slowly made his way down the hall. The door at the end of the room read "Garfield Logan"—it was a dressing room or something. Heck, Collin didn't know how movies worked these days…

He knocked.

"Who is it?" came a familiar voice from inside. Beast Boy. Garfield Logan of Earth-312: _Collin's Earth_. He had only seen him once since the day of that fateful battle against Delirium, and that hadn't gone the best. How would Gar react? Would he lash out? Attack Collin? What would happen, Collin didn't know. He'd just have to find out the old fashioned way.

Rag knocked again, and Beast Boy impatiently blurted, "It's open!"

He opened the door slowly, giving Gar the time to take in the scene before he did something rash…

"You…" Beast Boy said absently, through a lot of pain. "I thought you were gone for good this time."

"Hey, Gar," Rag said. "I just came to say hello… And to give you something."

"I didn't get to ask you this last time--what happened to Delirium—or whatever that other _you_ called himself?"

"It's okay, Beast Boy, he's taken care of."

"No, not Beast Boy. Not anymore. Just Gar. Garfield gets me made fun of. I—" Gar Logan, Hollywood star looked away. "I lost them all, man. I don't have anything left. Where did you run off to? Another universe? A place where we're all alive and still happy."

"Beast Boy, I'm sorry. I was a coward. I came here to give you a Christmas present."

"Christmas is over, man." Gar said bitterly. "And stop calling me Beast Boy."

"Sorry.. It was yesterday—in the place I live now. Think of it as a late Christmas present, I guess."

"What could you possibly have?"

"Come with me," he said. Rag placed his hand on Beast Boy's shoulder and then focused his energy through the Dark Catalyst in his right gauntlet…

**_FLASH!_**

Suddenly, they were in a dark underground gave… and a statue was nearby.

"Why did you take me here!" Gar blurted. "As if there isn't enough wrong with my life now!"

Collin looked down sadly, but walked over to Terra's statue and placed his left hand on it. And white energy began to coarse over it.

Stone became flesh once more…

And as the girl collapsed at Beast Boy's feet, Collin smiled into Gar's astonishment. "Merry Christmas, Gar," he said. And with that, he vanished…One more stop.

**oooo**

Back in the reality we know and love, Robin sat at his desk in the crime lab, tapping out a report of the battle with Rei the previous night, when suddenly, the familiar sound of Dark Catalyst energy discharging brought a chill to his gut…

He drew a birdarang and spun around…

"Collin," he said. "What in the blazes are you doing?"

"I just thought I'd do something for you for Christmas. There's someone would like to see you…" Rag held out his and, and the Dark Catalyst discharged again, this time reality bloating like an egg and spinning around…

To reveal Jack Drake…

"Dad…" Robin whispered. He was otherwise was speechless.

"I thought maybe you could spend a few hours together. I don't guess he could stay here without messing up the balance of reality but…" He trailed off, because he doubted he was even being heard: Tim was wrapped in a father's embrace, tears escaping his mask…

"Merry Christmas, Tim," Rag whispered…

**oooo**

And far away, on the other side of Jump City, Raven walked slowly into a church, wearing a holo-ring and bearing a gift as well as the coat and sweat pants.

She looked through the door and saw some people inside, shaking hands, hugging... Wishing each other a holly jolly Christmas. Raven didn't see Josh, and sighed. She didn't even know his last name and there were probably twenty Joshes at this church. She turned to go, when suddenly the same came out of the bathroom as if on cue…

"Raven!" he blurted, and dashed over… "I recognize you! You need a better disguise."

"Well, this disguise wasn't meant to fool _you_," she said with a little smile. She didn't want to break anything with her emotions... "I just came to give these back and to give you this…"

Raven handed Josh the clothes and the package, and he beamed at her. "Thanks Raven. Merry Christmas."

"You too, Josh," she said…

As Raven left, Josh called at her. "You know, you should have gotten me two gifts. It's my birthday."

"You were born on Christmas? Well, happy birthday, then." She said, and then continued out the door…

And as she walked away, she thought about what he'd just told her… Could he—? Raven glanced back over her shoulder, her eyes a bit wider…

Nah… that was ridiculous…

Wasn't it?

* * *

Yay! I got it out earlier than expected. But unfortunately now I don't have an excuse to not work on my college applications! -.- 


End file.
